In 1990 I had all but given up hope of owning my favorite boat .
The factory refused to install a bigger engine and I would not accept it with the factory installed size . This stopped me from ordering the boat at the boat show and later that summer the company went out of business
. The assets of Bayfield Boats which included many partially completed boats were to be auctioned off .
Was this my last chance?

. In the company of two friends Warren and Joe I made my way to the auction armed with a checkbook. I had hopes of getting my Bayfield.
The morning went by with the sale of office furniture and marine hardware
. After a brief pause the crowd moved outside to the boats.
First up was the 25footers.
I moved to where the 36footers were stored, to get a last look before making my bid .
The one I had a likening for would be next and I still wasn't sure if I was do the right thing.
I was prepared to go as high as $10,000 for what a pile of fiberglass,
no lead
,no engine
not even a full set of bulkheads.
IT started "Can I have an opening bid of $1000 " said the auctioneer the crowd went silent. I answered with a wave and a grin." $1200" was the next cry and it was answered .
Someone else wanted my boat how dare they ."How about $1400?" was the cry I answered again with a wave but I wasn't grinning . It was like bidding for your child .
There was a paused at $1900. The bidding was getting slow , I hadn't notice.
The auctioneer asked a helper next to him probably an ex-employee of Bayfield "How much it would cost to finish this majestic yacht?" whispered the answered.” That much!".
The bidding started again with $2000
I was slow to answer.
"Two thousand once"
I was thinking so was everyone else.
What was I getting myself into?
"Two thousand twice"

My two friends looked at me and raised my arm to answer the bid. The hammer came down "SOLD" too the gentleman in the front row.

I had in front of me a project that would consume the resources of my complete pay, time, energy and tax the friendship of those close to me.
I had just bought a full size plastic model kit, with no instructions and I was later to find out not all the pieces.
Luckily in 1978 I had built of my first boat from a kit with instructions that assumed that you were a competent builder and of coarse my ego said I was such a builder.
The plans left out vital step that although did not necessarily affect the strength of the boat did affect the cosmetics.
These omissions were later impossible to correct and haunt me to this day .
I was determined not to make the same mistakes, I was going to make new ones.
My first problem was to pay for the pieces arrange for a truck to hall it and rent a plot of land where it would spend the next 5 years.
I couldn't sleep that first night my head was just starting to realize that I had done it to myself again.
I had vowed to never build another boat and here
I was with a larger boat project and that sinking feeling you get when you are about to sit down to eat a whole elephant.
In the following years I ordered and installed the lead ballast , that larger engine ,tanks , Galley
, Main salon , Head , and two berths.
On deck a mast was needed to be found and rigged with all winches, line, sails, cleats .

The list seemed to go on forever and each project was an adventure in hunting, finding, negotiating, buying and installing.
Was I ever to see water ?
In 1996 it happened like a birth with an eight year labor StonecutterII was launched .
The work hasn't stopped as anyone with a boat can attest.
Every year its something new DRS, GPS or VHF , a drifter main or a staysail ,varnish or paint, and always antifoul .